Tag: The Matrix
Jacked In
So I’ve had my artificial means of hearing hooked up and running for more than six years now… I don’t brag about it much or talk about it much because every time I get confident in something audio-wise, I then get into a social situation and end up getting sent back to feeling outside the hearing world again because I can’t understand the conversation.
Of course, I can revel in the fact that I can enjoy music again. I have been able to for some time as I think it’s been a tool for me to adapt back to the hearing world in one way or another. Sort of like a personal configuration utility for my brain — I remember how certain songs sound or certain tones I should be listening for — a cymbil crash perhaps, maybe the backign orchestra section jumping in during the refrain to “Hey Jude” — and press myself to hear these things. I use it as a gauge to see how well I am doing.
That took on a new dynamic last month as I had two cords, termed as Personal Audio Cables – sent to me by Cochlear Corp. These two wires — for personal media players or hi fi stereos/TV’s/computers — let me connect my body-worn speech processor directly to the aforementioned objects so I hear the tones or the music directly instead of trying to sort things out through a set of speakers.
But lets dispense with the technical crap. I got these things in January and I unpackaged one of the cables. I connected it to my PC speakers and then turned on iTunes… pulled up a song and started to play…
You seen the Matrix?
That scene where Neo gets combat training information uploaded to his head by Tank? It was kind of like that.
“Hey, I think Mikey likes it. Want some more?”
“Hell Yes!”
Now, nothing beats hearing and feeling music coming through the air and through the speakers. Nothing beats listening to smething in surround sound (for example) where you feel the sound waves and it adds to the effect of whatever you are listening to.
That aspect is lacking. But the aspect of having music beamed directly to my head? I’ll take it any day of the week. It’s been so awesome that I bought an iPod Nano and am experimenting with music I’ve never listened to before – which I wouldn’t try much when I was relying on the speakers alone.
the fallout
So where was I?
Oh, yeah… Dwelling on inevitability. Surgery. All that joyous stuff that makes life grand for me. August 7th, 2007 was an extremely surreal experience in that my focus had to be elsewhere instead of impending doom and gloom (thank you Oren Koules, Jim Sherrin and Doug Maclean). Surreal may be a strong word for it. A grand, welcome distraction might be a better phrasing. Having a friend come over to spend some time with me and further distract me only aided to things.
The next day was no better – wanting to deal with that story and yet lying in a hospital gurney most of the day while waiting an angiogram: the pre-operative procedure as bad as I dreaded (but with a great staff of physicians trying to deal with my issues and some medical breakthroughs since my last angiogram that kept me from being bed ridden).
You know, I feel like I’m being shallow in the details but at the same time — there weren’t many meaty details before I was trucked off to the ninth floor at Tampa General Hospital where I stayed overnight before surgery. Besides pain issues with thanks to the angiogram, everything went swimmingly.
And how can I properly term my stay at TGH besides saying I was surrounded by good omens and positive energy? Days previous to surgery, I’d gotten a religious card sent to me with the only Patron Saint I identify with. It’s sorta grim but after I learned about him (and wrote about a poem where I invoked him) I didn’t see it as an ill omen as-so-much familiarity. I can deal with familiarity.
When I got to the ninth floor, who greets me warmly but an old friend from High School who works as an Registered Nurse on the floor? It was good mojo to see her, realize who she was and have come right up to me and say hi.
Another thing that was positive and yet drenched with negativity was a nurse I had overnight who I couldn’t understand due to her accent. She was warm, pleasant and tried her best to overcome things and I found myself mad that I had gotten frustrated with her.
What is the Purpose?
“I know why you’re here, Neo. I know what you’ve been doing… why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You’re looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn’t really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It’s the question, Neo. It’s the question that drives us. It’s the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did. ”
“What is the Matrix?”
“The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.”
Night after night? Check. Hardly sleeping? Sorta check… Living alone? No but feeling alone? Check….
Searching for Him? Who Him? It? Her? Possibly…
What is the Purpose is the question that I am asking… and I honestly don’t know.
What is Real? "Linda" Washowski's gender isn't
I’m writing this post, not trying to slander the co-creator of The Matrix… I write it out fo shock from learning about it.
Larry Washowski… Half of the Directing and Creating team that brought you Assasins and The Matrix saga, is having a sex change operation. That’s right — Larry’s becoming Linda.
All I can say is that I am shocked… really… I mean…well, I haven’t ever really known anyone who wanted to make the gender switch. i still don’t but this is the most famous person I know who is going to go through with it…
Film Quirks
I emailed my older brother Mike the other night after I came across a piece of movie trivia on IMDB that caught my eye:
(From The Matrix Revolutions
All of the crew members of the Hammer (with the exception of Captain Roland) are named after firearms (i.e. Mauser, Colt, AK)
Now most people won’t understand the quirk but I immediately put two and two together on this and thought of The Dark Tower saga and Stephen King. Roland of Guilead is the last Gunslinger and he is normally associated with guns – hard calibers, so to speak. I just had to pass that along to someone as a possible Dark Tower reference.
Of course, Mike could give a shit but you still gotta love him – for some reason :tongue
I also told Mike (after his “I could care” reply to my note) that I have been noticing another quirk lately7y that has been driving me bonkers just because it’s so obvious and so veiled at the same time. I’ve been thinking of The Godfather when I watch First Wives Club on cable. Diane Keaton yells something about “Uncle Carmine” and there is this weird progression that ties that line into the Godfather and Keaton’s role in it. (“Uncle Carmine” is what Bruno Kirby calls Marlon Brando’s character in The Freshman,. His full name is Carmine Sabatini and the character is a caricature of Don Vito Corleone, the character Brando portrayed in the epic Godfather film).
I don’t know, stuff like that has stuck out a lot with me lately. Anyone else have things like that happen when watching movies? Seeing ties to other movies and such?
Van Helsing = Van Marketing
I haven’t been much of a fan of Universal the last few years. They’ve had some good movies but they tend to be a little, shall we say, over-occupied with franchise building… The same can be said with every major studio right now (Fox – X-Men, Warner Brothers – The Matrix, Sony – Spider-Man, New Line – Lord of the Rings… the list goes on for each studio too) but I feel like Universal tries a little too hard to get into the niche and — well? Overkill.
Van Helsing is a great example of trying-too-hard.
The movie hasn’t even come out yet (which features Universal giants/film character legends of horror in Dracula, Frankenstein, etc) and Universal has not only a sequel lined up but also spin offs and a TV Show… They are planing for Van Helsing to be huge when it is released and from some fanboy buzz I have seen on the web – it will be.
Maybe this is just me being cynical and wishing ill on something I am not very fond of? Last movie that I heard huge money rumblings about before the films ever were made as the “Lord of the Rings” films — and of course I love those now. Maybe Van Helsing is going to be able to do the same thing in the long run (Kate Beckinsdale doesn’t hurt either)?
But, then again? What if the overly-CGI and over-the-top action in the movie and a mixed up plot goes and leads the majority of Americans to stay away? “What happened?” will be what is uttered most on the Universal lot but the truth is we know just what happened — they gave in to marketing before they made a movie worth seeing.
Interaction #2 — Part One
All right, ladies and gentlemen… For the consistant readers here at der Stonegauge, you may recall I had a little Interaction section a few months back where I posed some questions to everyone and they posed some questions back to me in response…
This is just an ongoing deal… I’ll post Five Quesitons here and your job is to answer those questions as best you can. On the next thread – you can pose me five questions of your own… but please note – I’ll delete any posts that are overly crude….
At any rate — Lets start this off…
- If music is the melody of life, what band do you think is setting the tempo?
- If you watch Sci-Fi / Fantasy movies, which Saga do you prefer more — Star Wars, The Matrix or Lord of The Rings?
- What is more important to you – your ambitions or love?
- Describe how you think George W. Bush is performing in office and why you draw that conclusion.
- In a deleted scene in Pulp Fiction Mia Wallace tells Vincent Vega that there are two types of people in thsi world: Elvis people and Beatles people. In your humble opinion, which one are you?
The Film Fan Man and Movies that Panned
With The Matrix Reloaded panned by critics and with Revolutions getting the same treatment, I am wondering just how much I am going to like Revolutions seeing that i liked Reloaded for all its flaws that the critics claimed the movie had, or how it was boring or whatever.
I know this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that I experience this. There have been plenty of movies I have liked that critics – or even the public – have loathed to one degree or another.
Take, for instance, Jim Carrey’s The Majestic. For some reason, I cannot not-like Carrey in a serious role which Jim has tried before to give his acting a little more depth. I mean, I also liked The Truman Show as it is one of my favorite movies all time… That’s two Carrey roles that got mixed reviews — and loathing from the comedic demanding Jim Carrey Loving public.
Add The Cable Guy to this list and you have a trifecta of bombed Carrey movies that I love. I like the dark humor of Ben Stiller’s movie in which Matthew Broderick is stalked by a cable installation technician who watched one too many re-runs as a child.
Lets not stop here however, I’m sure I have a long list of movies that were panned that I happened to like… For instance, Death To Smoochy is a comedic masterpiece to me. Ok, not a MASTERPIECE but at the same time, it’s a amusing comedy that features Robin Williams in a role that finally allows him to showcase his inner anarchist. It also lets Edward Norton finally defuse the ultra-serious image that he has passed out in movies like American History X and Primal Fear.
Then we have the Pierce Brosnan-as-James-Bond Tomorrow Never Dies. I’m told time and again that Sean Connery is the ultimate Bond but alas — I believe Pierce is and this film sorta cemented that with me. He’s suave, he’s got the expressions and the acting down and he’s just too f’n cool in this movie. Most of the recent Bond films have been less believable, to me at least, than this one…. Which I couldn’t stop watching when it came out, and that I have seen put down numerous times by the fans.
Another one that comes to mind – which has a direct link to The Matrix movies because of the writers, is Assassins. Maybe you can call this one a guilty pleasure because Sly Stallone is sorta blah in the lead role but damnit — Antonio Bandaras comes off SO FUCKING COOL as Miguel Bain. Wouldn’t you agree… Bobby?
And there is another movie that could easily make this list, that being the Matthew Perry / Bruce Willis assassin-in-suburbia The Whole Nine Yards. To some, the movie is too dark. To others? The movie humor is too light and therefore inneffective. I’ve seen this flick ridiculed by fans and by critics alike but, aw hell.. It’s enjoyable to me.
So what about you? Any movies that were panned that you actually loved? I don’t mean blockbusters like Star Wars or something either…
Reloaded Ramblings
Well, I’ve been feeling :puke since late last night. Honestly, I was up until 6 AM because my stomach was doing knots and I couldn’t have slumber sweep me away. It didn’t help that I had stayed in bed until noon the day before….:sleepy I gotta get back to normal hours.
At any rate, Mike gave me The Matrix Reloaded as requested as a late birthday present (speaking of late birthday’s – my silence towards other’s birthday’s is only because of other’s silence twoards mine). I had seen the movie back in June so it wasn’t like I was unaware what happened…
But come on, folks… you should know me. Well, maybe you don’t. I happen to be deaf and use a device to help me hear — but most conversations are tough on me. So I depend on captions with TV and the like.
What does this have to do with Re-Woah-ded? It’s time for my delayed review on the film now that i understand just WTF was going on (not to say I didn’t through watching the movie with just the images on screen).
I look at this movie and I watch it and after dropping all the rehetoric — “It’s about choice”, “Cause and effect”, “It’s understanding that choice and why you made it” and all the other stuff — I find the film’s aim to be about Faith. Undying faith.
How did I jump to this conclusion? Neo being ridiculed by the Architect for having hope. The fact that Morpheus is at a cross roads (“I have lived a dream and now that dream is gone from me.”), and how much the people of Zion and even the machines must believe in Neo — or believe in themselves for that matter — in order to survive the coming onslaught from the Machines.
There’s the love story that you see in this film which is faith in a bond between two people (sidenote – the scene with the cave and Neo making it with Trinity could have been edited out and re-shot with just the two of them in bed in the warm afterglow. That might have moved the movie along faster).
I don’t know, maybe I am missing something here — maybe I just enjoy the movie enough to not care to see the contradictions that the critics are talking about… I see this as a film of faith. As will Revolutions end up being.
Keanu Reeves has said the movies are about “Birth, Life and Death” which scares me a bit because I don’t want to see Neo get killed off to save everyone else. I want to see everyone else saved somehow with Neo leading the way…..
Oh well, so much as for that.
I got my writing assignment back from Herr Fisher and need to work on that sometime soon. I don’t know when I will however. Sorta discouraged and sort of just blah right now with writing — though this entry came off my mind/fingers pretty well. We’ll see what happens.
Eh?
You are Trinity, from “The Matrix.”
Strong, beautiful- you epitomize the ultimate
heroine.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Well, that’s nice… I’m a heroine. Strange that several of my stories for class have been with women as the lead character as well…
Well, I woudl think that Trinity embodies / personifies the sun sign of Libra – so it’s all good…
In one ear and out the other
It’s odd how many thoughts I had ready to jot down as a journal entry last night as I was enshrouded by insomnia — politics, random babble, defense of insecurities, attacking paranoia’s, etc, etc, etc….
And all of them have fallen out of my head and become chewing gum on the sidewalk of life — unable to be resurrected.
SO why am I typing up these trivial journal entries right now? I’m wondering that myself, I know others wondered that during their tenures on Der Stonegauge and I know others that read this journal probably get to that point where they wonder “What the hell is supposed to be entertaining about this?”
Well, it’s not for you (depending who is reading this), it’s for me.
That’s something I keep forgetting when it comes to writing down stuff — it was an escape from a lot of vileness and a lot of pain for a time and I am indulged by the pain and the vileness once again. The only problem is my collected thoughts that should make up something entertaining when amassed as written words amount to jack shit right now. And I hate Jack Shit, his breath smells.
I watched The Two Towers today and I was fairly disappointed at how the story turned. I mean, certain suspicions of mine were confirmed and other parts of the story just didn’t hold me like The Fellowship Of The Ring did. SO much going on, spread out, and so little time to tell the tale…
Then again, maybe I am just too f’n harsh on movies?
I also saw another Occupational Therapist today. I’ve seen 3 who have critiqued me in certain things since I got out of the hospital last week. This guy had me doing routine, trivial stuff and you know what? My legs couldn’t take it. Shortly after he left, I collapsed on the floor — my leg giving out much like it had just after I saw The Matrix Reloaded.
But in a lot of ways — it was GOOD that happened. Every time I’ve been working with someone, the tasks put in front of me have failed to challenge me. This guy made it difficult in a assessing way and I needed to put myself to task with his requests.
Question for anyone who wants to answer: Do you do something that another person seems fickle in response to, or wait until they show more enthusiasm (if ever) about the idea?
The Matrix has you
I’m testing out a new feature that I enabled for one reason or another.This will give you the chance to read something I wrote over at Kill The Web
As one who is on the progressive side of the fence with my political views, I feel like one of those freed from the Matrix and having to fight against the Machines in order to make things right again. I feel like Politicians in general right now are agents and either a citizen who remains in ignorance about the wrongs in America is an enemy up until their mind is freed, because those Agents and politicians will use them through their propoganda to support their own personal means.
Equilibrium
As of starting this writing, there are a lot of things that are going through my head right now that I wanted to enter in here, but at the same time I need to give some order to the chaos, right? First things first, second things second and all that… right?
The first thing is the balance of the soul — Equilibrium.
Actually, I’m not writing about balance directly or about Libra or about the soul and all that deep shit that I could get into right now. Instead I’m writing about the movie Equilibrium with Christian Bale. Now I’ve talked about wanting to see The Matrix Re-Woah-ded and seeing I haven’t, this makes one very acceptable substitute in my mind. No bullet time and the action sequences weren’t as sped up as The Matrix, but the idea of Gun Kata (a martial art that makes the gun as lethal as a sword) and this 1984 / Fahrenheit 451 / The Matrix inspired film was excellent in it’s own right.
The premise of this film that got my attention the most, however, was the emotion=crime / war / man’s destruction premise. I couldn’t feel Sunday morning besides sorrow or numbness. I started watching the movie and I could identify with Bale encountering emotion for what was probably the first (or a fresh) time. It was like me receiving sound again by way of the ABI in
2001… He is overcome by trivial things such as a sunrise and other emotions and it’ s… just powerful. Of course they could have overkilled that (or maybe it would have been proper?) by showing more imagery like that — having the character just staring at something we take for granted every day and finding emotion (pleasure) in it? That would have been strong too.
As things go, I’ve got 2 papers I may very well use for my 2nd Assignment with der Long Ridge. I’m waiting to hear from my instructor, Lou Fisher, about a question that I had concerning the paper and hopefully that will be soon. I’m also waiting for Sarah Evanchalk to get back to me with regards to the stories — I sent them both to her for her to critique.
Speaking of stories, I’m also waiting for someone to get back to me on a story I touched on a few days ago on here. I think it’s a good story but it could be cleaned up a bit.. And I long to be able to piece together some of the things I touched on with this story by starting another portion of the thing.. I know, I know – vague, but it’ll become apparent soon enough I hope.
I’m also thinking things I shouldn’t be – or I had been thinking things I shouldn’t be. Now I have regrets and I started believing things that aren’t true any more. Talk about a fucking roller coaster with emotions.. And also another vagueness that I apologize to the masses for reading. The person who that would mean something won’t even see this, so it’s not like I’m doing anything by publishing it.
Oh well, more ttomorrow – got stuff on my mind and got time to write.
